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Evening is slowly closing in around the Harbour yet again, and once more the bad weather generated by the Spire - or at least that's a rather common hypothesis, the other involves scaley pegasi with antena - have grown worse once more and is whipping up storm-level winds and rain. Most ponies are sensibly avoiding the streets and it's flickering cones of lamp lights, several having gone out and leaving the streets darker than they should be. Light spills onto the street, though, from a pair of very low windows at the Fizzy Flask, light coming from the basement.

The room itself is barren stone, several large barrels and kegs lining the walls and holding one of the two commodities traded here - soda. Standing dead centre in the room sat a small pedestal, covered by a sheet of blue cloth, and scattered around were ponies. A few had been invited, a few had just been dragged along by the mysterious force of 'friendship attraction' - the more friends gather in one place, the higher the chance their friends show up.

Of course, there was one pony missing from the gathering, the hostess. Though judging from the sound coming down the stairs she was coming. "Alright everypony, I got a few soda's. Now, can we get to the point why I asked you to come? Well, most of you."

Magpie blinks. "I thought it was for the sodas?"

Nocturne looks around at the group of ponies. Sure, there were a few he got along with, but he was not feeling up for talking today. Still, Fizz had been a good friend as of recently, and he didn't want to let the mare down. "Yeah, about that…" he mutters, staring blankly at the ground.

Off to the side, a Big White Mare sits, relegated to the back row by virtue of her height. "Taste-testing your latest flavour?" calls out Winter. "Is that it? Or our latest crazy concoction? Or are we here to hold down pieces of paper that the wind is gonna blow around? Are we here to learn juggling?" She rolls her eyes about as she tries to think. "Those are literally the only reasons I can only think of ever inviting anybody anywhere."

Rising-Chaos looks entirely disinterested by the gathering. She received an invitation, so came, but that doesn't mean she entirely trusts the alchemist. When their gracious hostess returns she looks over. "Finally." The becloaked unicorn has found a spot farther away from the others, or possibly nopony wanted to sit near her.

Winter-Solstice is totally sitting near Rising Chaos. Because Rising might be the fun-spoiler, but Winter is a fun-spoiler-spoiler.

Kludge is here, relaxing for the first time in a few days. Between keeping an eye on Unknown (who was currently taking a nap) and the marathon repair spree on the Rusty Bucket, he's been a busy pony.

"Nope, Magpie… Frankly, I'm surprised you found your way here. Actually, the same goes for you Winter. I sent out the call for a magician, a carpenter and a musician with a sound amplification spell…" muttered Sodium-Fizz as she walked around the room, handing out the glasses of soda before walking up to the pedestal, a wing motioning for them to join her. "Either way, on to why we're here!"

Soda coughed for herself and spread a wing to the pedestal. "Well, good news everypony! I have a foolproof idea for bringing the Spire down. Now, gather around and let me tell you how we're going to do this! And before you say anything Arcee, you're going to help!"

Nocturne's ears perk up at the plan. Being stuck at the Harbor for a date while other ponies went off to explore bothered him, and now was his chance to do something. "I'm listening," he says with intrigue.

Winter-Solstice downs her glass of soda in a single go, sets the glass aside, and calls out. "Does it involve kicking in any way? Because I can't do those other things but I can kick thiBRRRAAAP" She belches, then clears her throat. "…. things."

Magpie giggles. "Maybe we can just give Winny lots of soda and she can burp the thing down."

Sodium-Fizz frowned at Magpie and Winter. "…No. Now get over here and quit mucking up my dramatic reveal. Please?"

Winter-Solstice hangs her head and slouches over to sit a bit closer. "Ooooo kaaaayyyy."

Magpie says "Sorry." She sits down quietly in front. "Go ahead."

Rising-Chaos frowns at the pegasus. "I thought I made it perfectly clear I wanted no part of this." She really means it too, and the thought of this makes her very uncomfortable. Rising looks over at Winter, who's obviously so excited, and can't bring herself to storm out. "Fine, show me." What a jerk Winter is, spoiling her fun.

Winter-Solstice brightens up as Rising shows a bit of enthusiasm, and wags her little featherduster of a short-cropped tail against the floor.

Kludge sits and listens. "This should be interesting," he murmurs.

Nocturne rolls his eyes at the unicorn. "It wasn't that easy when I asked for help," he pouts quietly, shaking his head and turning his gaze back to Fizz. "You were saying?"

Sodium-Fizz smiles, both way to brightly and a bit embarrassed. "Right, sorry… But as I was saying. I have a idea! The whole Spire place is the key to it, so we're just going to destroy it. But it's a wee bit to big… so we need to fix that first." Soda giggled for herself, her smile growing wider. "So, having a look around I dug out a recipe and some of the most powerful and volatile ingredients I could find… for a potion to be dispersed in the clouds over the spire."

The alchemist mare turned slightly, her wing coming to rest against the cloth and janking it to the side, revealing a flask balanced precariously on a narrow base. "A shrinking potion! It'll easily shrink it down to a twentieth of it's size if not more, and from there we just weaken it with more conventional means, and maybe even kick it down!" Soda nodded firmly, a foolproof plan indeed! "Any quest-…"

Crash, the vial went into the floor.

Winter-Solstice listens, with rapt attention, eyes gradually widening, eyebrows arching. This is starting to sound better and better by the moment! Wow! This may work! AND there is kicking! Oh gosh, oh gosh, oh-

oh.

Winter stares. She then raises a hoof. "I have a question. Do you have any more?"

Nocturne blinks a few times. "Uh, yeah… Should be we in the same room as that right now?" His eyes remain fixated on the fallen vial, and he takes a few steps backwards.

Rising-Chaos is quick to point out the perceived flaws in the plan. "You do know that the clouds appear to be moving outwards from the spire, right? I don't see thi-" The vial falls, somehow this feels familiar. Rising sighs, lays down, and waits for the inevitable. She covers her eyes, because better safe than sorry.

Kludge looks at the broken vial, then around at the room. "Two questions, Fizzy. One, how long does it take for the stuff to take effect? And two, how big of an area does it affect?"

Magpie asks, "Um, but aren't the clouds all full of those monstery things, and—"

Magpie bolts for the door, like right away.

Sodium-Fizz facehooved. "Oh, almost instantly… And like this? Most of the open floor space, obviously." She sighed and peered upwards, which was decidedly further away now than it was before. "With a bit of luck we'll be able to get up to my laboratory for the antidote when we've stopped shrinking…"

In fact, they were shrinking very fast indeed! Fast enough that Magpie's bolt for the door left her more or less standing still in relation to the room… for a moment at least, as the floor shrunk with them. "As for the clouds, I had a id-… Oh, hold on a moment…"

The grey mare looked around, her ears perked upwards in alarm. "The floor is shrinking too, this might be a bit worse. If memory serves there runs a sewage line right under the middle of the floo-oooor!"

Well, so it did! A sewage line close enough that the shrunken floor, together with it's pony cargo, that it all pitched right in.

"Oh, man!" exuberates Winter. "I've never been a shrinky li'l runt before! This is gonna be pretty exciting~!" She hunkers low against the plummeting floor, trying to keep her balance. "At least until a fish eats us! Then it's gonna be the most awful thing ever! Hey, Fizzy, when's your birthday again? I am gonna get you some rubberised flasks for putting your most volatile concoctions in, because SERIOUSLY, girl!"

That's just about enough for Rising Chaos. She may be able to deal with shrinking, provided there was an antidote available before she went home, but a sewage line? Not okay, very not okay. She finds herself on a piece of shrunken floor, fighting to keep her balance and stay on. "Well thank you for this, miss Fizz. I am glad I accepted the invitation from such a consummate professional. What now?" Her voice is just oozing with sincerity. "I'm sure you'll get us out of this mess."

Nocturne only groans as he's shrinking, and lies down to deal with his fight over balance. "I wasn't ready for it to be one of those days." He sighs and begins fidgeting his way to Fizz's location. "But I guess I don't have a choice."

Magpie shrieks as she's suddenly falling into the sewer system! "Nooo!" She flattens and tries to cling to the floor, sliding and tumbling—!

"Maybe you can kick your way out of any fish that happen to eat us?" suggests Kludge to Winter as the craftspony tries to stay in the middle of the impromptu raft. "Just thought of a third question, Fizzy - how long does this last?"

Sodium-Fizz only managed to roll her eyes - everypony should be ready for the unexpected and deranged at this point, she figured - before the shrunk floor smashed into the sewers, landing precariously on the edge of the walkways lining the filthy waters of the sewer. Groaning the alchemist pushed herself up on her forehooves. "Oh… some twenty-four hours?"

Winter-Solstice looks up… up, up, up, up to the hole in the top of the sewer line, and beyond, to the gaping sky that is the first floor of the Fizzy Flask.

She then starts hopping, waggling her forehooves around in the air as she does. Hop! Flail! "Ungh!" Nothing. Hop! Flail! "Nnnnnnungh!" Nothing. This continues.

Rising-Chaos growls with frustration. "Perfect, awesome, amazing, this is exactly what I wanted out of today." Rising storms off towards the walkways and off the floor. "I suppose you don't have a way to fix this on hoof? Can't you just fly back up to your lab and get the antidote?" Winter's valiant attempt does't go unnoticed. "Good try Winter, really. I don't think it's going to work like that, though."

Nocturne stares idly at Winter's attempts to escape, but nearly lashes out at Fizz's answer. "I don't have that kind of time!" He shouts, but quickly covers his mouth with one hoof. "Sorry, uh. I have thing, I have to, um… Oh, what's the use?" The unicorn shrugs and gives a sigh of defeat.

Magpie starts to scramble back and forth looking for a way out that isn't horrible. "Uh… oh— okay! Okay. I have a plan. We just need to get back into Fizzy's lab, um… and then we can make more shrinky potion, and we'll pour it all over Horseshoe Harbor! And then we'll all be the right size again 'cause EVERYPONY will be teeny!"

"No, no!" says Winter. "I almost got this! Just a little further, just- HNUUUNNNGH!" Skyward lunge! Flail! She drops back down onto her bonker. "Well, look on the bright side, guys!" she says, as she pulls herself to her feet. "The small size of bugs means they can fall a long ways and not get hurt. So if we get back up there, and fall back in, we'll be okay."

"Unless we fall in the water. That would be basically the worst thing that could ever happen to a pony."

"Maybe we should try heading for a different exit?" suggests Kludge. "Get to a place where it's easier to leave here, then go to a place where we can wait this out in safety." He shrugs. "Makes sense to me…"

Rising-Chaos sighs. "Thanks for the reassurance Winter, I feel great now."

Sodium-Fizz nodded at Magpie. "Indeed not! Unfortunately, it smells a lot worse than water. And it sounds disgusting, too. All the squishy and squashy and squeaking…" Soda shook her head as she made her way onto the side as well. "But yes, I suppose we could just sit tight till I get back from my lab… It's awfully far to go, as small as I am…"

Fizz frowned for a moment before peering at the others curiously. "Did I say that it was squeaking?" Judging from the expression on her face she hopes she didn't. For rather obvious reasons too, as something rather large and ratty skirts around the light falling from up above.

Winter-Solstice picks herself up and leaps between the party and the ratty presence! Then it skitters away. "Get back here, cheese weevil! I'll tie your whiskers in a knot! I'll- wait." The "big" mare stops and turns to blink back at the others. "Are rats evil? I didn't think so, but in this case, are they?"

Rising-Chaos waves a hoof at Fizzy. "You couldn't carry it down safely anyway, at your size. It wouldn't be worth it. Unless you want to go up and try to convince somepony to help." The mention of squeaking, and Winter mentioning rats makes her panic and return to the group. "Great, just great. Now we get eaten, I am so glad I accepted your accursed invitation." Her two blades are levitated from her saddlebags, looks like she came prepared.

Kludge looks up towards the rodents. "Evil? Nah," he scoffs. "Hungry, maybe. Problem is, we're about the right size to be a meal."

"Rats are carnivorous, yes." Rising says conversationally. "They can also be extremely aggressive and territorial."

Winter-Solstice whirls back towards the edge of the light filtering from above and charges off. "AAaaaaaaaarrrggggh!" she articulates, disappearing into the darkness of the tunnel.

Magpie says "Oh my gosh she just ran in."

Nocturne rolls his eyes. "Who else can scare off a rat? Anypony?"

Rising-Chaos glares at the others. "I don't know about you ponies, but Winter seems to, more often than not, have fun and win. I'm going with her." Rising chases after Winter, casting some light from her horn so they aren't completely in the dark.

Kludge follows after the fleeing ponies - after all, it's best if the group sticks together, especially when there's dangers around. "If I had known that things were going to be this interesting, I'd have brought my armour," he sighs.

Magpie aughs, dancing on nervous hooves. "W-wait! DOn't run off into the — WAIT FOR ME!" she runs after them.

Rising-Chaos looks back at Kludge, a surprised look on her face. "You have armour?"

Sodium-Fizz blinked. "She… Oh dear… Still, I suppose Arcee have a point… Winter's one of the good guys, she'll win." The mare sprang forward, following in their tracks.

The rats seems genuinely startled on their part. Their food is charging -them-? That made things really easy. And also very weird. After all, what did you do when morsels like these just threw themselves at you? The big - surprisingly so, had everypony been normal size the rats would have been considered really large, now they were as tall as them and a few even larger than Winter - rats, for obviously there are more than one, ran through and fro in confusion. At least till one of the larger rats - it's ear ragged and torn - darted forward to stand in Winter and Chaos' way.

"Wooden armour - more like a woodpile costume that happens to provide a bit of protection, but a sort of armour nonetheless," explains Kludge, running wide of Winter and Rising's trajectory.

Nocturne gulps as he watches the rat charge toward the distant ponies, and his horn begins to glow, and his body is wrapped in a red aura. After a brief moment, he shouts in an unusually loud, demonic voice. "Get away from them!"

It's right in the way? Good. That makes it easier to reach! Winter charges directly at the biggest, meanest, most ear-chewed-uppiest rat, because it is clearly the leader, and the best way to show these trash-nibblers who's boss is to find the boss and boss 'em on the boss. Which Winter does! Or tries to. Specifically, by romping up, whirling around, and trying to kick the thing square on the nose. Ha! "Ha!" she says. "Ha HA!"

Rising-Chaos is as hot on Winter's trail as the athletic scholar can be. The rat would normally, at this size, be terrifying. Rising, however, is really really mad, and so it's appearance makes her run towards it faster. She slides to a halt before it, twin blades at the ready. She looks for an opening, but really, Rising is no fighter.

An opening is provided, more than enough, by Nocturne's magic shout, which seems to startle the rats something fierce. Certainly enough for the lead rat to get a face full of white pie-plate hooves - leaving a ring of flies buzzing around it's head even.

Even as the lead rat stands, if it's perpetual slouchy-looking stance and be called a proper stand, the others squeak and chitter away agitatedly, black-furred bodies quickly closing rank behind the ponies and cutting of that from of retreat. If they want to go anywhere, it's further down the tunnel past the big black lead rat.

Rising-Chaos knows how to solve this problem. Her sword is brought around and placed right in front of the rat's eye. "Stand down," she growls, as if the rat will actually understand, or listen to her.

Ha ha! Success! Kicking things: it works! Sometimes. Did it work? There are rats everywhere. This was not part of the plan! Winter Solstice casts a quick glance about. Lots of rats. Lots of kicking is in order, but she's the only one primed to dole it out. The "big" mare frowns and draws herself up, scrambling back from the big rat, eyes narrowed. She's about ready to charge back in for something else, but screeches to a halt when Rising issues commands. Winter blinks, turning to look over at the wizardy pony. "That's not gonna work!" she hisses, surprised. "Except… except it's so crazy about not working that… that it has to work!" Winter looks back at the rats with wide eyes, waiting to see what they do.

Kludge slows to a halt as Rising tells the rat to stand down. If it works, terrific; if it doesn't, well… at least he has a backup plan.

The plan is, indeed, plain crazy… Obviously it works! The big rat sneered - somehow - at Rising Chaos for several long moments, seeming to debate whether or not it would risk the blades to get a chance to gnaw on the unicorn trying to command him about. It seems to come to a reluctant 'no' as answers though and took a step back, and one to the side, opening the way.

Of course, being more or less out of harms way itself, it gets to enjoy one of those perks about being the biggest, meanest and dirtiest rat around. It gets to boss everyrat else about. With a series of agitated squeaks and a pointed paw it gave the order - the rats behind the shrunken ponies pressing forward.

Rising-Chaos scowls, keeping her sword pressed right up against the rat's eye. "Let's go, now." Making sure to never stop facing the big one, Rising starts to back away. The unicorn looks relieved, it worked! Something finally worked!

"Yeah, yeah, we're going!" grumps Winter, casting a glare back over her shoulder at the encroaching ranks of rats. "C'mon, folks. Let's not give them another excuse to give us an excuse to kick 'em around." She reaches over, scooping Magpie up onto her back, and carries the near-filly along as the party advances. "Good thinkin', Rising. Maybe I shoulda been a wizard instead of a me."

Kludge trots along with the others, somewhat glad that he didn't have to stomp on the boss-rat's tail. At best, it would have been a distraction so that Winny could land plenty of devastating kicks; at worse, well… being chased by a (proportionally) large rat wasn't exactly on his to-do list.

Rising-Chaos looks the most surprised that they aren't currently lunch. "Winter, don't ever change. That was the scariest thing I've done in some time."

As the ponies make their way away from the rats… Well, judging from the slowly rising sound of paws on moist stone… They might just have to run anyway! A suspicion confirmed by Soda as she turned around and muttered a, "Oh rats…"

Followed by a superfluous, "They're after us. Run!"

Winter-Solstice rolls her eyes. "Are you kidding me? go, go!" she calls, moving to swat Rising on the backside and likewise spur Soda ahead to run in front. She slows her own pace to fall back and pull up the rear. "That's right, you little… er… you big… you big… littlebigs! Let's see you TRY to get close!" She lashes out with a hindleg every few romping steps, which sort of hobbles her pace a bit, forcing her to double-time it to catch up with everybody else again. "Soda! I hope you studied sewer plans when you were getting permits to build your store, so you know where we should go to find an exit!"

Rising-Chaos eeps as her rump is smacked, that smarts Winter! This really isn't Rising forte, but she tries her best. Even then, what she manages is to stay more or less even with Winter, panicking slowing her down even more. "I'm not, sure I, can keep this up," She pants.

Winter-Solstice swats Rising on the butt if it looks like the unicorn is starting to fall back. Swats for everybody! She even tries to swat Kludge on the rump just to keep things well-rounded.

Kludge just keeps running - whatever else you could say about the iceball, it was a good way of improving breathing efficiency. "There's gotta be an exit or the like around here somewhere," he grumbles.

Rising-Chaos manages to spare Winter a glare. "You can stop that, if you don't mind!" As compensation, she redoubles her efforts to keep up.

"We're fa- oww! Winter!" shouted Sodium-Fizz, blushing rather furiously as she leapt skywards, catching air in the foetid sewer. "We're not close to any I know off! And true, we can't run from a horde of…" Soda peered behind herself, "two hordes of rats for long! We need another way to get out of here!"

Of course, that's easier said than done. There's just the walk straight ahead, occasionally littered with debris and junk - ranging from unmentionable lumps to driftwood that's been washed up in the sewers from the sea…

Rising-Chaos looks up at Fizzy. "Is a horde an actual unit of measurement? I'm pretty sure they just all count as one horde." Because that is the most important thing right now.

"If you have breath enough to argue phrasings, you have breath enough to run faster," points out Kludge as he keeps running.

Winter-Solstice romps along, eventually giving up the threatening backwards kicks in favour or being on rump patrol. Still pulling up the rear, she's the best one to start poking pony backsides if they fall too far back. "Oh, no! Oh no! We're not gonna have to hop into the water and ride junk, are we?!" she calls out. "That's like the worst idea!"

"Well, do you have any better?" came Sodium-Fizz's question from up above. "I mean, I'm fine… but I'm the only one with wings and I'd prefer it if the lot of you aren't rat droppings in a few day!"

Rising-Chaos pelts along, but spares a glare Kludge's way. Even so, she has to concede his point, and speeds up. She avoids the obstacles as best she can. "If you ponies want to try the river, feel free. I am NOT joining you, I can get out of here on my own, if I have to."

Winter-Solstice tucks her head low and charges forward, pushing past the main batch of ponies and heading towards a particularly large bit of wood sitting on the walkway. She makes her way to the edge, waits for everybody to run past, then tucks her head low and pushes the wood across to the edge and over the side. A moment later, and there's a splash! Winter peers down at it. "Okay!" She pauses. "Soda, you owe me a bath!" And then she jumps, flailing her shaggy hooves before landing on the floating board. She spreads her hooves wide and wobbles about to maintain balance, then looks up at the other ponies as her makeshift raft drifts by. "Alright, anybody else jumping on, c'mon!"

Kludge leaps over onto the deployed raft and starts looking for anything that could be used as a pole. Hey, if Thunnini can use one to help propel her out-of-element vehicle, then why not use one here for the same purpose?

Rising-Chaos pauses to look down at Winter and Kludge. "I did just say I wasn't going to do that, didn't I?"

"Yes!" shouts Winter, wobbling about to help maintain balance following Kludge's landing. Magpie is also on her back still. There's that. "But you were wrong. You can take a bath with Soda and I if you want when this is all done!"

"Sorry Arcee, but over you go!" came Soda's voice from behind the unicorn mare. Followed by a firm push.

Rising-Chaos makes a show of considering this. "I really am not sure why you think I would see the appeal of that." To tell the truth, she does see the appeal of that, but she's being stubborn. "What else do I ge- oof!" And off she goes tumbling down to the raft, will she land on it? Who knows.

"Kludge go stand over on the other side of the raft to help balance it out oh my gosh I-" blurts Winter, rushing over to the edge near Rising, and reaching out as far as she dares to try and catch the falling unicorn.

MERCIFULLY, WITH THE ONGOING RAIN THROUGHOUT THE TOWN, most of the throughput through the sewer is just rainwater washing down. That and it's not THAT big a town so it's not like there's a constant river of pony effluence to worry about. Which is good. Because otherwise this could probably be more horrible than it needs to.

The answer is kind of, as it turns out. Rising chaos lands in the 'water' several inches in front of Winter reaching grasp. She keeps the presence of mind to close her mouth and eyes and swim to the surface. The inches look really, really long at this size, but she starts swimming towards the raft, swearing bloody vengeance on Sodium Fizz.

Winter-Solstice drops her hindquarters to the raft to maintain as stable a position as she can- Magpie scooting back to perch on Winter's butt and help keep her anchored- as the "big" mare reaches out and helps fish Rising up and out of the water as soon as she's able. "There we go! There we go. That wasn't so bad! Don't worry, that will wash out."

Rising-Chaos stomps to the middle of the raft, soaked. "That bath better be /fantastic/ Winter. Or else I am going to be so upset."

Kludge moves around as needed to help keep the raft stable, keeping an eye out for any obstacles in the path of the raft.

Sodium-Fizz alighted on the raft. "The fantastic you're referring to makes me think I should keep you away from some of my stranger bathing oils…" muttered Soda as she looked around for a moment before making her way up front towards Kludge and joining him keeping an eye out.

No obstacle seems directly apparent, though sticking out of something unsavoury is what could easily work as a pole to push them along - all within easy griping range.

Rising-Chaos scowls Fizz's way. "Oh please, I'm a civilized mare. I just want a warm bath." Her horn sparks to life and the worst of the mess slides off her cloak, which is far more precious to her than her coat.

Kludge reaches out and snags the thing that looks like a pole, then pulls it free from where it's stuck and starts using it to help propel this makeshift raft along. It's not exactly the easiest going, but at least he has some idea on how to do this, and it gives him a chance to sit.

"Eh? Sure!" says Winter, pulling herself upright. She peers down at her front legs, all soggy. Oh well! All smiles up top. "There will be singing and dancing. I'll bring sandwiches. We'll book an entire afternoon! Do you like cupcakes? We'll get some of those up in."

The little raft floats its way down into the darkness of the sewer, and Winter chats away the entire time. "Maybe it'll be a themed bath. Battling the Nefarious Smooze! No, wait, I've got an even better idea. Adventures in Seapony Land! I'll have a little toy boat and we can have monsters and it'll be great!"

Guided by Kludge the makeshift raft set of sailing down the sewers, dragged by the sludge-currents towards the sea. Safe from the rat horde, at least for now. Far behind them a furry black mass of rodents made their way along their secret paths. Towards the sea. The biggest, meanest and dirtiest rat leading the way.